Kindred: A concert of memories
Free (RSVP recommended)
- Harriet Fraser, soprano
- Stephanie Aston, soprano
- Jennifer Bewerse, cello
- Molly Pease, voice
- Miller Wrenn, double bass
- Natalie Mann, soprano
- Tali Tadmor, piano
Harrison Birtwistle — 9 Settings of Lorine Niedecker (selections)
Harrison Birtwistle — 3 Settings of Lorine Niedecker (selections)
Molly Pease — Inner Astronomy (selections)
Steve Danyew — New England Folk Songs
A concert of contemporary classical vocal works, by four groups of stellar Los Angeles performers. This is unSUNg's final concert.
About this event
Since 2013, unSUNg has brought "Songs Uncommon and New" to Southern California and online audiences, create a space that welcomes new classical vocal music and the array of colors, textures and tones that come with this unique niche. This is the final concert in our series, bringing unSUNg's journey to an end. We are privileged to present these very fine performers and their fascinating, thought-provoking program, linked by essential themes of memory, connection and more.
Harriet Fraser – selections from Harriet's COVID-inspired album, Peace, featuring folk song arrangements by Shawn Kirchner.
Stephanie Aston and Jennifer Bewerse – selections from 12 Settings of Lorine Niedecker by Harrison Birtwistle for soprano and cello
Molly Pease and Miller Wrenn – selections from Molly's album, Inner Astronomy, for vocalist and bass.
Natalie Mann and Tali Tadmor – New England Folk Songs by Steve Danyew for soprano and piano
This is a free concert, but RSVP is recommended. Click Get Tickets at the top right of this page to reserve.
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COVID-19 requirements (as set by the venue — we'll communicate any changes with registrants within 48 hours of the concert time):
Per CDC, county, and diocesan guidelines, masks will NOT be required of those who provide proof of vaccination. If you are not vaccinated or choose not to provide proof of vaccination, masks are still required. Of course, any vaccinated persons desiring to still wear a mask, are encouraged to do so.
NOTE: We will NOT have childcare available. Please think of this as a live recording session with no "second takes", and consider leaving children at home, as this event will be recorded for archival purposes. Thank you for your understanding.
About unSUNg Concerts
Founded in 2013, this grassroots concerts series presents and promotes new and neglected vocal chamber music and the creators of those works, online and through live concerts, social media, and monthly newsletters. unSUNg collects "Songs Uncommon and New" into unique, collaborative concert experiences.
Our diverse programs have included art songs, voice with various instruments, choral music, opera excerpts, and highly unusual repertoire performed by an array of professional performers, mostly based on Southern California. Led by artistic director Ariel Pisturino, unSUNg is currently growing to build a new business model, increased monetary support and coverage of our participants, and ambitious outreach and service goals to support the future of new classical vocal music.
https://www.unsungconcerts.comAbout Harriet Fraser, soprano
Harriet Fraser, originally from the UK and now based in Los Angeles, is a classically trained soprano equally happy on stage or in the studio.
She is an excellent sight-reader. Her fine, rich soprano voice combined with her innate musicality, enables her to perform music ranging from baroque to contemporary. She is the first choice for composers and conductors who demand accurate interpretation and reliability whether of a familiar piece from the repertory or a complex modern composition.
https://www.harrietfraser.com/About Stephanie Aston, soprano
Stephanie Aston is "fearless" in her pursuit of new repertoire (Steve Schick). She has participated in numerous American and world premieres including Luigi Nono’s Guai ai Gelidi Mostri, Michael Gordon's What to Wear, and George Aperghis’ Sextuor: L'Origine des espèces. She has appeared on L.A. Philharmonic Green Umbrella, Noon to Midnight and Chamber Music Series, (Re)Sounds at Stanford University, and at REDCAT. Ms. Aston is an original member of Kallisti, and a founding member of ROMP Ensemble, ASTRALIS DUO and Accordant Commons. She has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, wasteLAnd, Long Beach Opera, The Industry, Red Fish Blue Fish, Gnarwhallaby, Chamber Cartel, 18-squared, and ad-hoc ensembles at Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Norfolk Contemporary Music Festival, UC San Diego, Stanford University, Chatter, and Los Angeles. Stephanie is an affiliated artist with San Diego New Music. Noteworthy performances include Brian Ferneyhough's 'Etudes Transcendantales', John Zorn's 'Rituals', Jason Eckardt's 'Tongues', John Adams' 'A Flowering Tree' (Kumudha), Edgard Varese' 'Offrandes', Igor Stravinsky's 'Les Noces', and Alberto Ginastera's 'Cantata Para America Magica'. Stephanie can be heard on the soundtrack for the movie 'Downsizing'. Ms. Aston holds a D.M.A. from University of California San Diego, an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts, and a B.M. from University of North Texas; she currently teaches at Moorpark College and Mount St. Mary's University.
http://www.stephanieaston.com/About Jennifer Bewerse, cello
About Molly Pease, voice
Molly Pease is an eclectic LA-based vocal artist and composer whose singing has been described as "sonically mesmerizing" (LA Weekly) and "amazing" (LADC), and whose compositions defy genre.
Molly is noted for original interpretation whether an arrangement of neo-soul artist Moses Sumney's ballad 'Doomed' or the premier vocal performance of Pulitzer-prize winner Du Yun's 'Movement of Rosa' in the critically acclaimed experimental opera 'Sweet Land', produced by The Industry and directed by Macarthur Fellow Yuval Sharon in February 2020.
As a performer-composer, Molly uses improvisation and extended vocal sounds, merging music, movement, and visuals in solo projects and inter-disciplinary collaborations. Her newest album 'Inner Astronomy', for example, is a multi-disciplinary project incorporating her father's poetry and drawings with original music, fashion design, and collage. For 'Score for the Near Future', Molly collaborated with sculptor Jimena Sarno, with original music she recorded for a two-month installation at 18th Street Arts Center, and performed live in the space to culminate the project in December 2019.
https://www.mollypeasemusic.com/About Miller Wrenn, double bass
Miller Wrenn is a bassist and composer-improviser based in Los Angeles, CA.
His first album as a leader, Alternates, with his quintet Escapist was released May 4th, 2018 on pfMentum Records.
His music explores alternative models of improvisation, creative orchestration, and unfamiliar timbral and melodic gestures in pursuit of expressing universal experiences through an idiosyncratic lens.
He performs and records frequently in a wide variety of contexts and has been fortunate to do so with artists such as Steve Lehman, Vicki Ray, Larry Koonse, Joe LaBarbera, GE Stinson, Tony Malaby, Mark Menzies, and many others. Notably he recently performed the world premiere of John Cage’s 'all sides of the small stone for Erik Satie' at the RedCat Theater in Los Angeles with The Ensemble at CalArts, and regularly performs and records with avant-garde jazz luminary Vinny Golia.
Additionally, he performs with and composes for a multitude of collective musical ventures and his own projects. He is a member of Off Cell, a forward-thinking quartet comprised of musicians from Los Angeles and Dallas, which released its debut recording in February of 2017. As both a performer and composer, he is a member of the New Music chamber group EnsembleVomma, which recently premiered his long-form work The Shape of Them Dissolving, for piano and string quintet, at ArtShare LA along with two premieres of renowned composer/violinist Mark Menzies.
Miller received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Bass Performance and Composition from California Institute of the Arts.
https://millerwrenn.com/About Natalie Mann, soprano
Natalie Mann is an active recitalist and champion of contemporary music, which has allowed her to work with living composers on albums and sing on the world premiere opera recording of The Mask in the Mirror by Richard Thompson. Opera News wrote, "…Sarah, sung by Natalie Mann, whose ingratiating vibrato makes her character unmistakably seductive." She is currently working on an album of music featuring multiple world premiere recordings by American composers titled An Evening on the Mezzanine.
As a concert soloist, she has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the South Shore Orchestra during two New Year's tours of China, and the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus as the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony.
Her operatic roles include Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth and Ameila in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera; Mozart's Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro; Micaela in Bizet's Carmen; and Marguerite in Gounod's Faust. Critics praised of her portrayal of the title role in Suor Angelica; according to Peter Jacobi of the Herald-Times, "Her soprano soared with fullness of tone through the climaxes; no high note seemed to tax her."
Ms. Mann's concert appearances have been equally well received. Of her Carnegie Hall recital, Abigail Wright of The Opera Insider observed: "Ms. Mann does an excellent job of continuing her brilliantly sustained legato, undeniably stunning high notes, and impressive quality of pitch and tone center across the board."
Ms. Mann has received a Metropolitan Opera Encouragement Award and has been a finalist in both the Gerda Lissner Competition and the American Prize for Art Song. She has been a winner of the Audience Favorite Award in the David W. Scott Memorial Competition and the Hawaii Public Radio International Art Song Competition.
She holds advanced degrees from Indiana University and the University of Wollongong in Australia, funded through the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar program, as well as a Bachelor of Music from Butler University.
https://www.nataliemann.com/About Tali Tadmor, piano
Tali Tadmor is a Los Angeles-based pianist, vocal coach, conductor and music educator whose colorful career as a musician is reflected in the unusual path she took to becoming an artist. As an undergraduate student in mathematics at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), Tali began accompanying singers in a music course. She instantly fell in love with the field of collaborative piano and its repertoire. Soon after, she began performing professionally, eventually forgoing her plans to become a scientist and opting in favor of a career in music. A versatile musician, Tali has performed in some of the world’s great venues; from her debut recital at Carnegie Hall in 2009 to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Ford Amphitheater, Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center and the Great Hall in the heart of China’s Forbidden City. Though primarily a classical musician, Tali is active in a wide variety of musical settings, ranging from opera to world music, and from musical theater to worship. She has collaborated with many well-known artists, including Metropolitan Opera star soprano Angela Meade and Los Angeles Philharmonic cellist Daniel Rothmuller. Most notably, Tali served as Assistant Conductor and principal pianist to Maestro Placido Domingo in the Los Angeles Opera premiere production of Dulce Rosa in spring of 2013.
Immediately after earning her Doctorate in Keyboard Collaborative Arts from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2009, Tali was offered a faculty position as Vocal Coach and Accompanist at the Herb Alpert School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). At CalArts, Tali enjoyed a decade of mentoring undergraduate and graduate-level students, teaching weekly Master Classes, providing private coachings, overseeing opera productions, accompanying voice recitals and other performances and collaborating with fellow faculty members. In 2018, Tali was offered a teaching position at California State University in Northridge, where she now heads the Collaborative Piano Program, helping to train the next generation of vocal and instrumental accompanists. At CSUN, Tali teaches the Collaborative Piano Colloquium, a master class for pianists, singers and instrumentalists, as well as mentors several solo piano students.
Tali maintains a busy performance schedule in addition to her academic teaching career. In the spring of 2010 she returned to Carnegie’s Perelman/Stern Stage as pianist for the world premiere of Eric Whitacre’s newest song cycle “The City and the Sea” (a Distinguished Concerts International in New York (DCINY) concert). Later that year she was invited by the American Composers’ Forum (ACF) to serve as an adjudicator in their annual national songwriting competition and perform in the final concert featuring the winning new works for voice and piano. In opera, Tali collaborates regularly with the Los Angeles Opera and Long Beach Opera companies. In the spring of 2011, she served as music director for LA Opera’s concert reading of the newly commissioned “Dulce Rosa”, collaborating with composer Lee Holdridge and librettist Richard Sparks in presenting the new opera to Placido Domingo. The opera was not only picked up by the company, but after hearing her play, Mr. Domingo requested that the composer re-orchestrate the score to include piano and immediately hired Tali for the pianist position in the production. In the summer of 2013, she was the pianist for LA Opera’s production of Hans Krasa’s Brundibar, an opera performed in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and part of L.A. Opera Musical Director James Conlon’s groundbreaking “Recovered Voices” project. Additionally, Tali serves as Music Director and Accompanist for LA Opera’s Education and Community Programs Department, producing recurring citywide tours of company favorites such as The Marriage of Figueroa in partnership with the Los Angeles United School District (LAUSD).
Tali’s intuitive and informed approach to new music make her a favorite among many of today’s contemporary composers. Under the direction of composer Donald Crockett, she performed Michael Gordon’s “Decasia” as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s sold-out Green Umbrella Series at Disney Hall in March 2008. Her collaboration with composer Eric Whitacre has included a decade’s worth of concerts, workshops, and recordings worldwide, including his latest CD under the Decca music label. Her Carnegie Hall debut recital consisted almost exclusively of 20th and 21st century music with two of the featured composers–Libby Larsen and Lori Laitman– in attendance. Tali’s most recent projects include collaborating with Plitmann in her esoteric cabaret at the Theater @Boston Court in Pasadena, and recording Heaven on Earth, a World Music double CD with Jewish contemporary musician Danny Maseng.
A native of Tel-Aviv, Israel, Tali maintains ties to her Israeli musical heritage and to the larger Jewish community. She is the Music Director at Temple Judea in Tarzana, and accompanies the Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale under the direction of Dr. Nick Strimple. In 2011, she was awarded the Six Points Fellowship, commissioning her to compose an original Yiddish-swing cabaret entitled Ella Fitzgeraldberg. She has served as a teaching fellow alongside Danny Maseng at England’s Limmud Conference and for over seven years was Staff Accompanist at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute for Religion’s (HUC-JIR) Los Angeles campus. Tali routinely accompanies Israeli Consulate assemblies and other events.
Tali received both Master and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Southern California (USC), majoring in Keyboard Collaborative Arts with minor fields in solo piano performance, choral studies, and sacred music studies. She passed her doctoral comprehensive examinations with distinction and won the Keyboard Collaborative Arts Departmental Honors Award for five consecutive years. Named the USC Thornton School’s Most Valuable Player in May 2008, she was also elected into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and awarded several scholarships and teaching assistantships, underwriting the entire cost of her six-year residency at the university. Tali credits USC with providing her a world-class education, an extended family, and a second home for life (Fight On!). Beginning her piano studies at age 5, Tali attended the Israeli Music Conservatory in Tel-Aviv for twelve years. She moved to California in 1995 and currently resides in Studio City. Her teachers include her USC mentor Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Bernadene Blaha, Dr. Alan Smith and the late Israeli pianist and legendary pedagogue, Malka Mevorach-Choset.